Dublin
La Stampa Hotel & Mandala Spa, $195

Standing outside on orderly Dawson Street, you’d never imagine the Indo-Asian fantasy that lies behind the door of this Georgian manse. La Stampa Hotel & Mandala Spa is flamboyantly chic, its 37 rooms adorned with Balinese wall screens, teak furniture, potted palms, gold moldings, and mirrors. For dinner, it’s prawn toasts and pad thai in the glow of lanterns at Tiger Becs, one of the city’s most popular Thai restaurants.

Paris
Hôtel Amour, $140

What you know of the Ninth Arrondissement is still generally true—this boho district is no St.-Germain—but gentrification has struck, and the Hôtel Amour is an example of how much. Located on a slender corridor that feels more St.-Georges than Quartier Pigalle, the hotel is the brainchild of three nightlife aficionados who know their target audience well (think iPhone-toting media types) and chose their amenities accordingly. You’ll find cheeky framed photographs in the restaurant, rooms with toys from Kidrobot, and even a foosball table in the basement. Want more proof that the area is ready for travelers?Rue des Martyrs, around the corner from the hotel, has become the spot to shop for fine cheeses and groceries.

Paris
Hôtel Thérèse, $200

Hôtel Thérèse is set in an 18th-century town house on a quiet side street in the heart of the First Arrondissement. On the Right Bank, blocks from the Louvre, the Thérèse has 43 rooms that are on the petite side, but budding hotel doyenne Sylvie de Lattre (the woman behind another T+L favorite, the Hôtel Verneuil, in St.-Germain) has established an uncluttered aesthetic and filled the rooms with Parisian paintings garnered from local flea markets.

Lisbon
Fontana Park Hotel, $195

Portuguese architect Francisco Aires Mateus renovated a 1908 iron factory to create the Fontana Park Hotel. Keeping its exterior intact, he gutted the building to make way for Zen-like interiors. Open expanses, including the Bonsai restaurant and Fontana bar, are punctuated by sharply angled glass staircases and sheaths of hammered ironwork—homages to the building’s first life. The 139 simple black-and-white rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows that provide panoramic views of the city.

Dominican monks called this cloistered palace off the Grand Place home 600 years ago, but today the candlelit lobby of the Dominican welcomes all sorts, from ambassadors to twentysomething DJ’s. The 150 rooms, some with mezzanine lofts, balance 21st-century convenience (flat-screen TV’s; complimentary Wi-Fi) and baroque touches, including Fortuny printed pillows and satin bedspreads on pillowy-soft beds.

Amsterdam
Hotel Patou, $208

If proximity to Gucci is crucial no matter what city you’re in, the Hotel Patou on the PC Hooftstraat, Amsterdam’s version of Rodeo Drive, is for you. The 12 spacious rooms are elegant in the Dutch way (streamlined and spare), with oak-plank floors, a somberly sexy palette of putty-gray, black, and white, and bathrooms with Bisazza-tiled showers and huge marble sinks. Request room Nos. 40–44, all of which have mansard ceilings.

Copenhagen
Avenue Hotel Copenhagen, $217

Denmark’s architectural history is on display at the Avenue Hotel Copenhagen where Emil Blichfeldt, the man who designed the arched entrance to the neighboring Tivoli Gardens, created the hotel’s original 1899 structure. Inside, patterned Missoni bedspreads brighten the 68 basic rooms. Guests take their breakfast of house-made bread and fresh coffee on the bamboo-shaded patio.

St. Petersburg
Alexander House, $197

Intimate, affordable, and environmentally friendly aren’t words typically associated with Russian hotels, which is why the Alexander House is such a great find. Owner Alexander Zhukov, a former war correspondent for the Associated Press, turned a 19th-century mansion about two miles from Palace Square into a hotel with a familial vibe (Zhukov and his wife personally attend to guests). Each of the 18 rooms is distinct and named for a global city: several, like the airy second-floor Paris, London, and Rome rooms, have canal views.

Berlin
Sebastian Zippel, $151

Looking for a place that evokes Germany’s 1920’s Art Deco style?Then try the Ellington Hotel. Set in what was once a mammoth office building, the original 20th-century façade belies the updated all-white interior. The hotel is also conveniently situated on Nürnberger Strasse, the main artery of former West Berlin, and close to shopping mecca KaDeWe.

Munich
Cocoon, $115

Lindwurmstrasse, just outside Sendlinger Tor and the Old City, is a residential avenue lined with comfortable cafés and, now, the Cocoon. Guest rooms are sexy spaces fit for Barbarella, with bubble chairs, recessed lighting, and varying configurations made possible by sage-green sliding partitions. The nicest touch is a windowside reading nook, complete with a cozy daybed.